You have to appreciate that if you look at the North Sea there are two distinct sectors: there's the British sector and there's the Norwegian sector. We work happily in the British sector. It's open. It's under EEC rules in terms of procurement and so on, and that eliminates protectionism. In the case of the Norwegian sector, nobody works there unless there is absolutely no Norwegian ship left to do the job.
It's very difficult to regulate a mentality. You have to understand where shipping in the offshore stands in the Norwegian mentality. There are four million people in a unitary state in a small geographic area. It's the equivalent of oil to Alberta, of the auto sector to Oshawa, of pulp and paper to certain regions of Quebec, and so on. It is extremely important, and for 30 years they have built a well-honed, highly efficient, extremely protected marketplace through the regulatory process. There is no tariff, and there's probably nothing in writing that prevents foreign operators from working there, but they never do.
They have Statoil, a government-regulated oil company, which is 80% Norwegian government-owned. They participate in the development and have the right to back in and have involvement in the procurement process and in the approval of development projects. In addition, they have a petroleum directorate, which is a government agency similar to our offshore petroleum boards, which regulates development of the offshore. So when a proponent comes forward, they put a development plan together, which includes all kinds of things like environmental considerations, the method of development drilling, job scope, content, and so on and so forth.
The Norwegians are very careful in giving approvals to projects that are in the interest of Norway. If a developer comes forward with Norwegian ships, Norwegian offshore-constructed platforms, etc., it gets the nod. Very often there will be delays in development if there is not capacity in the Norwegian sector. Let's say the shipyards are completely full. Then that project won't get approved until the next cycle, in six months or a year, when there's space in the yards. I call it Norway Inc., and it's a product of homogenous culture, mentality, and the importance of the shipbuilding sector and offshore oil and gas to that country. They don't think that anybody can do as good a job as they can, and therefore they push it.
You just have to look at the British sector and the Norwegian sector. The Norwegian sector is built, run, manned, and operated by Norway. That's it. When you go to the British North Sea sector, it's open to the world.